what is seiten made of, and can i make something similar?

Question

Any ideas for how to make something similar to Tofu or Seiten. I would like something that absorbs other tastes that has a bit of bulk.

Fantastic 4 out of 5 answers,

THANKYOU.

Just like Yahoo Answers used to be ;-)

More great answers, thanks

Answer 1

You've already got some good answers but since I got mentioned...

The recipe that Gardeniagreen posted is a pretty good way to get started with seitan! There are IMHO a few *minor* problems with it relating to technique.

DON'T just dump the rinse water! Pour it through cheesecloth to capture the bran that was washed out, then let the bran-free water settle for several hours and you'll find that the wheat starch has settled to the bottom of your container. The starch should be white, any gray stuff is unlinked gluten that made it past the cheesecloth (how to fix this later).

The now bran and starch free water still has some nutrition in it and can be used for making soup or used to water plants etc. (with a small exception to be covered next).

You can increase the usable yield of gluten by adding vinegar to your dough. Use about 1 part vinegar to 8 parts water, it slows the development (meaning you need to knead longer) but also keeps the gluten chains from breaking and being washed out! The drawback is that you can't use this rinse water for soups or plants (but it is good for making and storing tofu (that's a whole 'nuther topic)).

You can get a more flavorful seitan by (carefully) removing it from the water before it balls up (while it's stil a stringy mess) and adding dry, tasty powders. Herbs, dried vegetables, dried mushrooms, nutritional or flavoring yeasts, soy flour, etc. The flavoring stays 'trapped' in the gluten matrix, it'll still ball up but you get a stringier texture that makes it less breadlike.

I don't normally use whole wheat flour or vital wheat gluten to make seitan. IMHO it's kind of a waste of good whole wheat (but it IS a good use of flour that starts to get old) and storebought gluten just costs too much (I'm a cheapskate). I typically use the cheapest unbleached white flour I can find since that's the cheapest way to make seitan.

You can save yourself a lot of labor by letting technology do the work. A bread machine dough cycle works well if you run the cycle twice (otherwise gluten development is incomplete). Mixers with dough hooks are wonderful! You will find it almost impossible to overknead the dough and if you've got a splash shield to keep your walls from getting starch painted, the same mixer makes it easier to wash your dough.

And a note to the person who invoked me, I just checked and I'm a he.

Answer 2

Here's a recipe for Seitan. It comes from a cookbook my brother gave me called "Vegan Planet" by Robin Robertson.

Seitan (Wheat Meat)

1 large onion, quartered
1 large carrot, coarsely chopped
1 celery rib, coarsely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
3/4 cup tamari or other soy sauce
2 bay leaves
16 cups of water, or more as needed
4 pounds whole wheat flour (about 9 cups)

Instructions
1) In a large pot, combined the onion, carrot, celery, garlic, tamari and bay leaves with 12 cups of water. Place over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer while you prepare the seitan

2) Place the flour in a large bowl, add the remaining 4 cups of water, and stir to form a firm dough. Knead the dough on a flat work surface until it is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Place the dough in the bowl and add warm water to cover it completely. Let rest for 20 minutes.

3) Place the bowl in the sink and knead until the water turns white (that is the starch coming out). Drain the milky water, then cover with fresh water and knead again until the water is almost clear. The contents of the bowl will be quite loose and messy, but you will soon have a smooth ball of wheat gluten, or raw seitan.

4) Divide the seitan into smaller pieces and add to the simmering stock. Simmer uncovered for 1 hour, keeping the seitan submerged. Do not boil. When the seitan is cooked, remove from the pot and place on a baking sheet to cool. To store in the refrigerator, place the seitan and its stock in a tightly covered bowl and keep for 4-5 days. You can also freeze the seitan, either in its stock or not, for several weeks.

Makes about 2 1/2 lb.


*Side note: So many people are interested in your life lately...you must feel so popular, lol :)

Answer 3

My family is of Korean descent (Mom half North Korean, half South Korean, Dad 100% South Korean) and my mother makes a fantastic "seitan". She puts out flour in water, all in a bowl, overnight (she puts the stuff in at about eight) and "massages" it by hand, to mix the dough together, in the morning around seven. She fries it up, puts in a little flavoring, and voila! Seitan, also known as milgogi.

However, I am not a cooking expert so you can email her, asking her for her recipe, at [e-mail].

Answer 4

Seitan is wheat gluten that has been made into a tough dough and then boiled. You can also make a "wheat roast" by making basically the same dough and then baking it.

I bag of Bob's Red Mill vital wheat gluten is about five USD here where I live and each bag has about 400 grams of protein.
http://www.bobsredmill.com/catalog/index.php?action=showdetails&product_ID=400
http://www.bobsredmill.com/recipe/search.php?category_ID=all&product_ID=400&keywords=&submit=%3A%3A+search+%3A%3A

I like both pan fried in a bit of oil and then cooked in the pan with BBQ sauce to put in sandwiches.

Store-bought seitan is barely worth mentioning.

Answer 5

You can also get Vital Wheat Gluten from Arrowhead Mills, mix with water per the directions on the box, and simmer in a broth. "La Dolce Vegan!" by Sarah Kramer has recipes for the broth in which you boil the seitan, and www.vegweb.com has various recipes for seitan.

Where I live, a box of vital wheat gluten is less than $3.50US.

Answer 6

I remember Greenghost saying he (she?) makes 'tofu' from other legumes.

Seitan is easier to make from vital wheat gluten than from flour because there's less laborious starch removal and you get more seitan recovered per pound.

Answer 7

Hail Seitan!

Answer 8

I put how to make seitan in your question "why can i buy seitan in cornwall uk"?

it's whole wheat flour, water, and elbow grease.